County Makes Election Mistake

Pahokee Ballots Added To Mangonia Park Total

March 30, 2006|By Anthony Man Staff writer

An election night foul-up at the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Office, in which absentee ballots from Pahokee were mistakenly tallied as votes in Mangonia Park, was corrected Wednesday -- changing the outcome of one race.

Frances Elien, the Mangonia Park councilwoman who held a barbecue with supporters Tuesday night to celebrate what she thought was her re-election, wasn't satisfied with the explanation. The corrected results on Wednesday showed Elien losing narrowly to Peggy Cook.

Elien said she wants details.

"They have to show where those votes went. Why did it happen? What measures are you taking to make sure that it doesn't happen again?" she said.

Her concerns go beyond her own contest. She said the problem would shake public confidence in elections.

"It lessens their faith in the system," she said. "It really does leave you with a huge question mark in the process. We're talking about right now 100-some votes. But when you're dealing with thousands, millions of votes, then it becomes scary and very uneasy. It reminds me of the year 2000, and that's something that I do not want to happen again. Something is definitely wrong."

Anderson defeated the former elections supervisor, Theresa LePore, in 2004 by capitalizing on unease over electronic, touch-screen voting and lingering public dissatisfaction with LePore's role in the 2000 presidential election. The top item on Anderson's list of campaign promises was to "restore confidence in the integrity of the electoral process."

Anderson said that more than 40 municipal elections since he took office in January 2005 have run smoothly and that people should not lose faith in him or electronic voting.

"This was solely due to human error. It had nothing to do with the function of the voting equipment, whatsoever," he said. "In all honesty, we have to say that the process takes a little bit of a hit, but I think that people can find comfort in the fact that this is really very much of an isolated occurrence."

Anderson said the mistake happened when the totals from paper absentee and provisional ballots were added to the totals from the electronic touch-screen machines. He said that was done by a person who incorrectly entered Pahokee votes as Mangonia Park votes.

Timely election night results could be a casualty of Tuesday's mistake. Anderson said he would implement new procedures that could mean candidates and the public would have to wait longer for unofficial results.

After Albury left Anderson's office, results in hand, she began thinking about the numbers and examined them more closely. She knew something wasn't right when she saw there were supposedly more than 100 absentee and provisional votes.

"The number kind of puzzled me because Mangonia Park does not have a history of high absentee ballots," she said.

She drove back to the Elections Office Tuesday night and relayed her concerns.

On Wednesday morning, double-checking showed the results from the night before were incorrect, said Charmaine Kelly, Anderson's chief deputy.

Even though Albury suspected something was wrong, she didn't expect what happened.

"We were all kind of shocked," she said.

Kelly said that's why election night results are labeled unofficial. She said she is "absolutely" certain that the Elections Office would have caught the error even without Albury's suspicions.

She said results in the other three runoffs held Tuesday were double-checked Wednesday, and she planned a third review to guarantee there were no problems.

The mix-up did not change the outcome in Pahokee. Though the numbers changed, Mayor J.P. Sasser still won re-election over challenger Alvis Davis.

Sasser and Pahokee City Clerk Patricia McLean said they didn't know anything about it until a reporter called Wednesday afternoon.

"It's an embarrassment for the elections office," Sasser said.

He did see one bright side: The corrected results showed him winning re-election by a larger margin Wednesday than on Tuesday.

In Mangonia Park, Elien said it was difficult to explain her reaction.

"After 12 hours, 13 hours of knowing that I won the election, I found out that I actually lost by 6 votes," she said. "It's like finding you won the lottery but someone looked at the number wrong. Instead of it being a 6, it's a 9, and you're broke."

Anthony Man can be reached at aman@sun-sentinel.com or 561-228-5501.

ELECTIONS OFFICE ERROR

Results changed from Tuesday night to Wednesday

Candidate Tuesday Wednesday

total total

Mangonia Park town Council

Peggy H. Cook 89 64

Frances M. Elien (incombent) 138 58

Pahokee Mayor

Alvis Davis 285 313

J.P. Sasser (incumbent) 373 454

SOURCES: OFFICES OF MANGONIA PARK TOWN CLERK, PAHOKEE CITY CLERK AND PALM BEACH COUNTY SUPERVISOR OF ELECTIONS.